Late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has been celebrated in a new illustrated biography, containing replicas of pictures and artefacts created and collected by the late musician.

Cobain Unseen, by Charles R. Cross, is the first illustrated biography to be fully authorised by Courtney Love and the Kurt Cobain Estate.

Cross writes in the prologue: "This book is a private, pictorial peek into the twisted Kurt Cobain collection, a never-before-seen dark museum of f***ed-up-ness.

"I've already written a biography of Kurt, so consider this an adjunct: a book focusing on his creative life, including a secret visual history of the things he created and collected. Pictured are many of the items you would have seen had visited the handful of locales where Kurt lived in adulthood.

"You'll also find never-before-seen curious from his childhood, including intimate snapshots, rare Polaroids and early Nirvana memorabilia. Unseen photographs, a few of them even taken by Kurt himself, will show you his world from his perspective."

Cross published a biography of Cobain titled Heavier Than Heaven in 2001.

The Nirvana frontman - who battled drug addiction - shot himself aged 27 in 1994.

Cobain wrote in his diaries in 1990, published in 2002, "Please read my diary. Look through my things and figure me out."

Cobain Unseen is published by Hodder and Stoughton Hardback on October 30.

Fri 31 Oct